The present invention relates to a compressor.
A refrigerant circulation circuit of an air conditioner includes a compressor and an external refrigerant circuit. The external refrigerant circuit includes a condenser that condenses a compressed refrigerant discharged from the compressor, an expansion valve that is connected to the condenser, and an evaporator that evaporates an expanded refrigerant passed through the expansion valve.
The refrigerant contains oil to be used for lubrication of respective sliding parts inside of the compressor. When the oil is discharged from the compressor to the external refrigerant circuit together with the refrigerant, the oil adheres to an inner wall of the condenser and evaporator to degrade the heat exchange efficiency of the condenser and evaporator. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-332637 discloses a structure for separating oil contained in the refrigerant from the refrigerant in order to suppress the oil from being discharged from a compressor to an external refrigerant circuit together with the refrigerant.
As shown in FIG. 7, the oil separation structure disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-332637 includes introduction passages 103 and 104 that communicate a discharge chamber 101 and a separation chamber 102 with each other. Refrigerant discharged to the discharge chamber 101 is introduced into the separation chamber 102 via the introduction passages 103 and 104. A separation chamber forming hole 106 that forms the separation chamber 102 is formed in a rear housing 105. The separation chamber forming hole 106 has a cylindrical inner surface 107. The separation chamber forming hole 106 has an axis parallel to a rotary shaft of the compressor 100. The refrigerant, when introduced into the separation chamber 102 via the introduction passages 103 and 104 from the discharge chamber 101, circles along the cylindrical inner surface 107. The refrigerant and oil are thus subjected to centrifugation.
However, in the oil separation structure disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-332637, the introduction passages 103 and 104 that communicate the discharge chamber 101 and the separation chamber 102 with each other need to be formed in the rear housing 105. Therefore, the rear housing member 15 is limited in the degree of freedom of design.